


I'll sit by your bedside.

by poenova



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Coma, Love, M/M, Major Character Injury, gays in space
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-31
Updated: 2016-05-31
Packaged: 2018-07-11 11:35:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,309
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7048042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/poenova/pseuds/poenova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Set after the events of Episode VII and with Finn still in the hospital in a coma, everyone has lost faith. Poe Dameron spends all his time by Finn's side, he is not giving up on him. He has faith he will be able to talk with him, laugh with him again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'll sit by your bedside.

The rebel base lay still and eerie following the events of the destruction of the death star. Han was gone and the shockwaves had run through the entire base, his death had affected everyone. People had gotten quieter. The rebel base had lost something, something that winning against the dark side could never fix. Han had always been a source of happiness, sarcasm and dry humour that had once lifted everyone’s spirits. With him gone now, rooms seemed smaller, the atmosphere seemed tighter and people fell into spells of despair plus with Finn in a deep coma, nobody felt much like smiling. 

Leia entered the base hospital. This was the fifth time she had visited the hospital this week, each time she knew exactly what to expect but each time she hoped for a better outcome. She visited Finn as much as she could, not only to check how he was doing but to check on Poe. 

Nearly all of Poe’s spare time was spent in that room, he sat in the chair beside Finn’s bed, even sleeping in it just in case Finn were to wake during the night. He told Leia he couldn’t leave. Leia, of course, knew why but Poe had not yet come to his own conclusion. Leia had grown to love Poe like a son and she was worried for his sanity. You spend all that time, watching the man you love struggle to cling on to life and never certainly knowing if he’ll ever wake, and that is a hard burden to bare every day. Leia tried her best to lift that burden as much as she could. 

“Poe?” she gently shook his shoulder with her hand. Her voice was soothing and brave. She always put on a brave face around all of her fighters and all of her crew. She knew she had to be a role model to them. Inside she was dying but she did her best not to let that show even though no one would think less of her for it.

Poe awoke quite suddenly in his chair, he had been sleeping with his legs over one side of the chair and his head tucked in-between his arm and a pillow. He grunted and shuffled around to make himself more comfortable.

“Hi Commander. He’s the same. I asked the doctors a couple of hours ago if anything had changed but…” Poe sighed. He got up and began leaning on the side of Finn’s bed. 

“How much sleep have you had? Truthfully.” Leia asked, concerned.

“Truthfully?” Poe let out a mix between a sigh and a chuckle.

“Around two or three hours. It’s this place, it gives me the chills.”

“Why don’t you go get some actual rest in an actual bed, I need my top pilot in the best shape.”

Poe glanced at Leia, he gave her a crooked corner smile. A smile to reassure her that he was fine, but Leia could see right through his façade. She knew that he could not leave Finn’s side and she decided not to ask him to leave again. She knew if her Han was still alive and in that hospital bed she would not have been able to have been torn away from it. She understood.  
She began to turn around. Ready to leave but she turned back. 

“Poe?” 

“Yeah” He mumbled, still looking at Finn.

She said nothing else, she just squeezed his shoulder. Poe’s head fell onto her hand for a second before he straightened his gaze back to Finn. Leia left the ward just as worried for both her boys as she had when she entered. 

Poe sat back down, exhausted. He checked around him; the hospital ward is not busy. Only a few patients. Mainly, Poe’s fellow pilots. They lay in the other beds dotted around the ward. Every day he’d go and say hello to each of them, just as a squad leader should do. When he was with them he was reminded of less painful days; days back in the pilot’s rooms, the way they’d bullshit about nothing and how that meant everything to him. He wished for those days back. Poe considered his fellow pilots his family too and talking with them was helpful in taking his mind of his main concern, Finn. However, every time he left them to go back to Finn’s bed he had to see Finn’s bruised, motionless face again and again, like reliving a terrible nightmare. Sometimes he felt like screaming, using all his power to just scream at something until he had no voice left. But most of the time he didn’t know what he was feeling, only that it hurt.

...

Poe slid his hand under Finn’s, grabbing it and trying not to squeeze it too tight.

“Hey you, I’m kind of freaking out you’re not, like, awake yet. You know, I miss you buddy… Finn.”

“Great, I’m just talking to myself now, can you even hear me? Why am I asking? You’re in a…” Poe stops midsentence. He stroked the top of Finn’s hand with his thumb before dropping it suddenly and getting up. He started to move around almost frantically, pacing a few times before leaving the ward entirely without even looking back to Finn. He bumped into BB8 as he was walking out. BB8 awkwardly rolled back and forth, looking up at Poe’s face. Poe stared at the ground, not looking at BB8.

“Beep. Beep beep.” 

“Not now buddy, not now.” He said in a solemn tone. BB8 could hear the lack of life in his master’s voice, it had lost its spark and vivacity it had once shared with everyone.  
BB8 rolled into the hospital bay, his little body was making a small squeaking noise on the limnonym floor. He rolled straight up to Finn’s bed. BB8 looked up and then back down to floor sadly.

“Beeeep.”

Back in the main control room of the base, a group of pilots, crew members and engineers were gathered together. When Poe walked in, they fell silent. Some turned to watch Poe walk past them, others ducked their heads to the ground. He began to tread the ground slowly, his hands were in his pockets, his spirit was broken.   
Leia suddenly ran into the rec room, forcefully pushing the door open, it hit the wall with a bang. 

“Poe!” she said. She was panting, her breathing was loud as she stared at Poe, her eyes were full of hope and thankfulness. 

Poe looked up from the floor. He caught Leia’s eyes and in that moment he knew exactly what she had come to find him for.   
He began to run as fast as he could back to the medical bay. He had no idea what he was going to say to him, it’d been almost 3 weeks of just him and silence. Thoughts were circling in his mind, he was beginning to get frantic and nervous but then he saw him. He saw him, sitting up and talking to the nurse. He was actually awake.   
Finn looked up, he saw Poe standing at the door. 

There he was. There they were. 

Poe couldn’t speak, he’d spent almost a month thinking constantly about what he’d say when Finn finally woke up but now that that moment was in-front of him his throat seemed to close up. Finally, he let out a whimpering sigh of relief.

“Buddy?” he whispered, his voice was shaky and exhausted. 

“Hey Poe.” Finn smiled. A tear escaped the corner of his eye, his smile stretched from ear to ear and never faded, it hadn’t lost its spark. 

He hadn’t lost his charm. He hadn’t lost the ability to make Poe swoon and melt inside. It was the same Finn he remembered. The same Finn he’d fallen in love with. He was awake.


End file.
